The Raptors are being deliberate in their coaching search. Is that the best idea, or is it possible our team will wait too long, and watch top candidates go elsewhere?
The Toronto Raptors appear to have called a halt to their interview process. The search for a new person to replace the out-of-chances Dwane Casey as head coach has stalled.
The latest candidates were a pair of San Antonio Spurs assistants, Ettore Messina and Ime Udoka. I’m sure they are both lovely gentlemen and connoisseurs of fine wine. Regardless, I wish Masai Ujiri had invited another Spurs assistant, Becky Hammon, to have a chat.
Popovich gets coaches from everywhere
A remarkable attribute of Gregg Popovich, the Spurs head man, is his ability to attract and retain a variety of coaching talent. Messina is a EuroLeague veteran who led the Italian national team at one time. Udoka, whose father is Nigerian, managed to parlay an exceedingly modest NBA career into a bench position. He’s been in San Antonio for six years.
Our local boys, Nick Nurse, Rex Kalamian and Jerry Stackhouse, have already had one chat. As far as we know, no one has been invited for a second interview.
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I can appreciate the need to “get this decision right”, as suits always say at times like this. However, I hope Masai doesn’t overplay his hand. Mike Budenholzer didn’t bother waiting for the Raptors to make up their minds, or even ask him back to talk some more. He signed on with Milwaukee.
Enough discussion – it’s time to act
Losing Budenholzer as a candidate is a relief, but having one of the other guys decide he’s tired of twiddling his thumbs would not be. The other two open NBA coaching gigs are in Detroit and Orlando. In theory, neither of those is close to being as attractive as the Toronto job. In practice, our best guys might decide they would like be the head man in one of those cities (assuming a position was offered). Surely that’s better than hanging around waiting for our people to fish or cut bait.
There’s another possibility worth mentioning. Dwane could get hired in the Motor City, then send for Nurse, Kalamian and others. I don’t much like the thought of whoever our new man(?) will be having to rebuild his corps of assistants.
I’m not convinced that taking a long time to make an important decision is a guarantee of coming up with the right one. We really don’t want to be scraping the bottom of the coaching barrel because our executives took too long. Step it up, Masai.